Burundians make their mark
2005-02-28 08:55
Bujumbura - Burundians vote on Monday in a nationwide referendum on a constitution that proposes power-sharing between majority Hutus and minority Tutsis, to put a final end to an 11-year civil conflict that has claimed 300 000 lives in the country.
Monday's vote will mark the first time Burundians go to the polls since the tiny central African nation plunged into chaos in 1993. The new constitution envisages a balanced power arrangement in the country, where the minority Tutsi tribe has ruled since independence in 1962.
Analysts have predicted that pro-referendum Hutu parties, to which some 85% of eligible voters belong, will easily overpower opposition from Tutsi parties, which account for only 14% of voters.
Under the constitution, the president will have two deputies from different ethnic groups while 60% of the cabinet will be Hutu and 40% Tutsi.
Representation in the parliament, made up of a National Assembly and Senate, will be apportioned on a 50-50 basis with Hutu and Tutsi parties required to field candidates from both ethnicities to reach the mix, according to the document.
The army and the police force will also be equally split along ethnic lines.
The thrice-delayed referendum will be the first step in a marathon seven-tier election process scheduled for April 22 when Burundians will directly elect members of parliament.
The MPs will then elect a president at a yet to be determined date.
On Saturday, the country's electoral panel called for calm during the landmark vote, describing the exercise as the advent of "a new era."
"A new era is opening up for our country, which after a period of crisis is headed for peace," said Paul Ngarambe, the electoral panel chief.
"It is for this reason that I call on Burundians to be peaceful when going to the voting centres to exercise the civil rights," Ngarambe added.
Burundi plunged into chaos in 1993 when the country's first democratically elected president, Melchior Ndandaye - a Hutu - was assassinated in a military coup which sparked an orgy of killings that claimed around 300 000 lives.
Currently, Burundi is enjoying relative peace with only one out of seven rebel movements resisting the country's peace process, but the rebels have pledged not to disrupt Monday's referendum.
- AFP